March 31, 2013

Vividred Operation Ep10

Okay, here we go... we've reached double digits on this show. I totally didn't mean for that to rhyme; now I feel like I need to make this intro paragraph into a bad song or something, and I think I'd rather saw my leg off with a rusty nail file than do that. To be blunt, this show doesn't deserve the effort. It's not as bad as some people have made it out to be, but there's no real way to say it's been good. Having said that, it's a lot better fodder for one of these writeups than, say, Girls und Panzer. That was a good, entertaining, well-written series (the OVA I covered notwithstanding), and the recent ending was excellent. I've not seen the ending of Vividred Operation yet... actually, I haven't even seen Ep10 yet... but I can't imagine it's going to be as good as GuP's. What I'm saying is "go watch Girls und Panzer, it's really good." However, I'm not telling you to leave here... we've got to finish this show together. And we will, before the next Formula 1 race on April 14th. On this I swear to all that's... um... swearable. But before we get to Ep11 and Ep12, we need to get through Ep10, and the first step in doing that is this:I'll admit, there are times that it's easier to do these reviews than others. Hot Dark Wet Girl Rei is in the shower, providing us with a handy recap as to her motivation to destroy the Phlebotinum Engine: in her "parallel world," it went nuts and destroyed everything. The infamous unseen THEY promise to restore it good as new, as long as Hot Dark Moist Girl Rei succeeds in destroying this world's Phlebotinum Engine. Sure. Makes sense to me. Then her parakeet starts screaming like a little girl that had her American Girl doll taken away and in this show, we all know what that means.
Croooow! is being a dick again. It knows that the parakeet freaks out when it's around, so of course it parks its feathered butt right on top of the cage. Oh, and for the record? While Hot Dark Damp Girl Rei stalks over, we hear the parakeet screaming and flapping its wings frantically... but there's no movement inside the cage. Mmmmmm... you can just smell the quality animation! Croooow! notes some... shall we say disobedience? from Hot Dark Drying Girl Rei, and does that trick with the eyes that it does.
Suddenly, there's a glare of light across the camera and Hot Dark Nekkid Girl Rei is on all fours, making the sort of noises you'd associate with a Japanese porn video, and the towel falls off buythedvds. It's good to be the bird... until it goes too far. It threatens to kill Hot Dark Towelless Girl Rei if she doesn't swear obedience to it, and she calls bullhockey.
Sure enough, it's just a servant of THEM and can't kill her. Score one for the Dark Girl. The scene ends with a standoff... Hot Dark Girl Rei explains that she'd use all her remaining arrows on the next Alone if she could be there when it first appears, and Croooow! prevaricates on whether or not it can tell her. Sounds like her plan could work, and work big. She's got this in the bag, yay for her!
Except for that whole "she wins, our world dies" part. That's kind of... a bummer.

March 20, 2013

Vividred Operation Ep09 Nutshelled

To be blunt, however, the title of this should be "Ep09 NutSHOTted." Because, oh my god, that's the least of what the Production Staff deserves. Episode 08 was, in my opinion, the best of the series so far, full of drama and character development. I really enjoyed watching it, mostly because it required that Team Aquos to succeed without the RHF, who is really the Kryptonian in the woodpile. Everything has to run through her, because only with her can they reach the ultimate potential of the Vivid System amd become completely unstoppable. Just like Superman. And it becomes boring, just like Superman. So seeing "The Jordanaires" succeed without her was quite nice. Now, it's common for there to be a dropoff after such a tour de force, I understand that. I do, and was actually expecting it. I mean, let's face it, this is Vividred Operation we're talking about here, not ARIA or some excellent show like that.
What I didn't expect was what we got. What we got was an episode that honestly made me angry with the pointlessness of it all. I wanted to inflict deep hurting on the Production Staff. And they would have deserved it, all of it and more.

March 18, 2013

Vividred Operation Ep08

After looking back at it, I realized that I've been dealing with this
bronchitis thing for three darn weeks. No wonder I'm so bloody tired!
At least the antibiotic has been working its magic upon me for these
past seven days... I feel a lot better. Now, I'm sure y'all are reading
this and saying something to the effect of "well, that's nice,
Wonderduck, but what, exactly, does this have to do with Vividred Operation?"
A fine question, and I'm proud of you for calling me on it. Keep the
duck honest, I always say. Well, since I feel better, I'm much more
likely to do a good job with this writeup! I mean, the last two have
been done while I've felt miserable, so this one oughta be fantasmic!
Or something like that. I dunno. We'll find out. As you may remember,
at the end of last week's episode the RHF had been zorched by a seemingly-defeated Alone and was
plummeting from the sky while the rest of Team Aquos watched helplessly
and Hot Dark Girl Rei chuckled darkly to herself. So where do we start this episode?
Ladies and gentlemen, the Production Staff went somewhere that even I
didn't go, and it's AWESOME. I saw this scene, of medical staff rolling
RHF down a hall while Team Aquos crowded around her broken body and
immediately knew I'd seen it somewhere before... I just couldn't figure
out where.
It did eventually come to me, and it may be telling that I was under the
influence of a cough medicine that contains a decent amount of codeine
when it finally clicked. We're in Ep09 of Ga-Rei Zero! The more I think about it, the better VividGaRei OperationZero sounds to me.
Is that what Hot Dark Girl Rei is shooting at the Alones? Fragments of
the Death Stone? Is RHF going to turn into The Schoolgirl In Black?
When's the pocky eating scene between Rei and Himawari? Did I really just say that out loud?

You've put a lot of work into this, I feel ashamed. I really should try to get at least a few shots out of Nyan Koi, but the Speed-review is going pretty quick. I wanna actually finish something for once.

3
After my wife came from anastesia, they gave her a spirometer and told her to use it every hour. Supposedly it helps prevent pneumonia. Not sure about bronchitis, that one is different (inflamation of upper passageways, not lower ones). Still, maybe something to google out.

March 08, 2013

Vividred Operation Ep07

Keeping up the routine. Keeping up the routine. That's what it's all about with my writeups for Vividred Operation. It's not a bad show at all, it just hasn't caught me the way the other three completed writeup series (Ga-Rei Zero, Rio Rainbow Gate!, High School of the Dead) did. No, I'm not going to drop it... I'm too far into it to do that. Besides, it's not like I have anything else to write about right now. So what the heck, let's take a look at what's going on after the debacle that was Ep06.
It seems like the RHF was out late, defeating another Alone. How lame
must this one have been to not even get any screen-time? Are there
nerdy Alones? Was this Alone the equivalent of having a bowl cut,
coke-bottle glasses and a pocket protector? Was it picked on by the
other Alones, shoved into lockers, tripped in the hallway, that sort of
thing? Finally, it had enough and decided that it'd show all those
bullies and took its shot at doing something none of the others could
manage: destroying the Phlebotinum Engine! Then maybe the cute Alone
cheerleaders would pay attention to him! Hope you feel proud, RHF and
the rest of Team Aquos. I hope you're really happy as you drool onto
your breakfast. That Alone was just trying to be loved... is that too
much to ask for? And you guys were just like all the rest, you slapped a
"Kick Me" sign on its back, took its lunch money and then disposed of
it. Buncha bullies, that's what you are! Meanwhile, as "Our Hero"
sleeps through breakfast...
...Hot Dark Girl Rei and her kickarse scarf lament their failure to
destroy the world. Again. Worse, it took another of her powerups,
leaving her with six. More importantly, she's running out of episodes
to accomplish her task. If she ever shows up with a rubber duck, I'm
going to just go out of my mind... in a good way, not a creepy way.
Well, maybe it'd be a little bit creepy. I wouldn't be proud of it, though.

2
Two ways to look at it:
1) They're Only Middle Schoolers. They just saw their friend and leader get blown out of the sky. They're shocked and stunned, and as a result, they don't react.
2) Finally, It's My Turn. "I never really liked RHF anyway. Himawari, come dock with me."

5
I sure don't like her. I don't even feel very sorry for her. I suppose they're trying to make her a sympathetic character, what with her tendency to pet cats and feed birds, but it just feels like unsubtle manipulation. And I'm just as sure as I can be that the black crow is fooling her, so she's not only angsty, she's gullible and stupid.

About Rei:
They're trying to make her into Fate Testarossa, an opponent who is nonetheless sympathetic. In the case of Fate, we know why she's doing what she is, and it makes perfect sense. She isn't evil, but whether knowingly or not, what she's trying to do is evil and so we hope she fails.

Yet when she does, we feel sorry for her. And when she finds redemption -- not the redemption she sought, but redemption nonetheless -- we feel catharsis.

I'm not getting that vibe from Rei. I don't like her. I understand why she's doing what she is doing, but there's a difference between her and Fate: Fate didn't know that she was working to bring about a catastrophe. Rei does. Rei is willing to destroy Akane's world in order to save the one Rei came from -- and that's a consciously evil act, no matter how many kittens we see her petting or how many times they let us look between her thighs.